Italian rider Diego Ulissi failed a drugs test conducted during this year's Giro d'Italia for the banned substance salbutamol, his Lampre-Merida team said Thursday morning.

"The results of the test from the UCI (International Cycling Union) report the presence in the urine of the athlete of an abnormal amount of salbutamol (1900 ng/ml), higher than the limit allowed by the regulations, which sees the limit at 1000 ng/ml," Lampre-Merida said in a statement.

The test was carried out after the 11th stage in the Giro last month.

Ulissi, 24, won the fifth and eighth stages before dropping out of the race after the 17th stage.

Lampre-Merida said the rider had declared, prior to the test, having taken Ventolin, an asthma treatment that contains salbutamol.

"Ventolin is permitted and was necessary because Ulissi was suffering from bronchospasm," the team statement added.

"As usual, all previous inhalations of Ventolin had been correctly declared.

"The rider, as per internal team sanitary code, will be provisionally suspended. Consequently he will not be attending the (Italian) national team training camp, and he requests the opening and analysis of sample B.

"The athlete himself and the medical staff of the team will continue to explore the reasons why the urine has been identified as having an abnormal and high presence of salbutamol."

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